


One Magazine Subscription

by GateGremlyn



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Multi, Pentangular Gate Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-10
Updated: 2012-07-10
Packaged: 2017-11-09 14:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/456707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GateGremlyn/pseuds/GateGremlyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What did the other Daniels do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Magazine Subscription

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a five-things prompt: Five lives a Daniel lived on the other side of the Quantum Mirror that our Daniel doesn't know about.

_Warning: character death (but remember, it's “another life”)_

In another life, Daniel got up at 6:00 AM and made it to school by 8:00. He taught French to high school students. He made a decent living. He read _Archeology Today_ in his spare time and went to Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon on his vacations. He never married, never knew excitement or adventure, never missed it. At 55 he retired and opened a book store called The Absent-Minded Professor.

In another life, Daniel stayed on Abydos. He got up at dawn and worked until dusk. He taught English (just so he could hear it spoken), first to the townspeople and then to his own small children. He learned to speak and write Abydonian fluently. He read the walls of the pyramid and kept his recorded findings in his own library, which included one copy of _Archeology Today_. When Ra's enemies found them, and the library burned to the ground, Daniel didn't care; he and his family were already dead.

In another life, Daniel wrote books. He got up at 6:00 AM and starting writing by 8:00. He wrote until the words blurred on the page. He taught the world everything it needed to know about aliens and the pyramids, hoping to be mentioned in _Archeology Today_. Right after his thirtieth birthday, the government locked him up with the rest of the loonies and threw away the key. He never wrote again. They canceled all his magazine subscriptions.

In another life, Daniel got up at 6:00 PM and made it to work by dark. He taught French kissing and slept with his well-paying “students.” He made a good living. He read _Archeology Today_ in his spare time and went to see the pyramids on vacation. At 40 he retired. He moved to a small house in the most remote part of Colorado he could find, locked himself away, and never spoke to anyone again. Copies of the magazine piled up on his doorstep until he gathered them together and burned them in his backyard.

In another life, Daniel went to New York. He got up at 6:00 AM and was at the museum with his parents by 8:00. He had a copy of _Archeology_ _Today_ in his back pocket because inside the magazine was an article written by his mother. Babbling in Egyptian and broken English, he helped his parents with their exhibit, getting underfoot and bothering the workers. When the stone fell, the magazine's pages were torn and bloodied, but it didn't matter because he could no longer see them.

In _this_ life, Daniel wormed his way into the Stargate program. He got up when he had to and slept when he could. He went through the Stargate. On one side of the 'gate, he learned enough about archeology and linguistics to fill many books and several lifetimes. One the other side of the 'gate, he taught languages no one had ever heard before to anyone who needed to use them. He learned and wrote; he suffered and died (and lived again); he succeeded and failed. He lost his wife but found an odd new family. Around his fourth year in the program, he canceled his subscription to _Archeology Today_. It no longer held any appeal.


End file.
